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TROY — The 90-minute forum between Sen. Roy McDonald and Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione was the only debate in their Republican primary, and it took only 90 seconds for the attacks to start.

Marchione, of Halfmoon, went after McDonald for his 2011 vote to legalize same-sex marriage, saying her opening statement that “when he broke his promise to defend traditional marriage, he insulted those who disagreed with him with vulgarity” then took money from special interests to fund a negative campaign.

Indeed, the contest between the two has centered mostly on the same-sex marriage vote, with McDonald raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from supporters in the Capital Region and beyond, and Marchione rallying conservative groups for her right-flank challenge to the two-term incumbent.

“The primary on Thursday, in my mind, is a referendum on gay marriage,” said David Bronner, a 68-year-old retired Army officer from Saratoga Springs who is supporting Marchione.

McDonald, of Saratoga, noted his marriage of 42 years, and said that his vote was based on principle: “I did what I thought was right…I did it because I’m a human being that cares. I could have found an easier way to get elected.”

“You don’t want pandering. You want somebody to be straight with you. That’s the way I was raised in a steel mill family,” he continued. “Letting people live their own lives, with dignity, no matter who they are. Not being dogmatic, being respectful, was the way I was raised.”

Marchione opposes same-sex marriage and suggested McDonald had sold out for his vote, but has always maintained her candidacy is also based on criticism of McDonald’s vote for a December, 2011 tax restructuring package that renewed most of an expiring surcharge on New Yorkers reporting over $1 million in income while trimming, slightly marginal rates for people reporting between $20,000 and $200,000 of earnings.

McDonald has touted that agreement, and other work of Senate Republicans, as creating “the largest middle-class tax cut in 60 years.” He also touted his votes for budgets in the past two years that cut deficits without new spending.

But Marchione seemingly outwitted him with stagecraft. She packed the debate hall, on the campus of Russell Sage College, with cheering, sign-waving supporters. And she filled her sleeve with punchy one-liners, including a retort that the tax package saved the average family $3.70 a week.

“That’s not enough for a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk,” she said, just enough “so legislators could praise themselves like it was the best thing since peanut butter.”

There was little clash on other issues. Both candidates agreed that Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done a good job, that the minimum wage should not be raised, that legislative term limits should be imposed and that state lawmakers don’t deserve a pay increase.

The debate was sponsored by the Troy Record newspaper and moderated by WXXA’s John Gray.

Whenever he could, McDonald pushed to portray Marchione — who has worked in government since graduating from college — as a parasite of taxpayers. He emphasized that she receives free, taxpayer-funded health insurance and filed papers to retire from her current position effective Sept. 19. This would allow her to be a “double-dipper” if elected to the Senate, collecting both a $79,500 salary and a pension simultaneously.

“We don’t have government jobs. We don’t have free health care. I come from a steel worker family — we pay,” McDonald said, before suggesting Marchione had a “parasite-type mindset.”

Marchione said she filed the retirement papers to allow a special election for her post, rather than let Cuomo appoint a Democrat; she also promised to donate either her salary or pension to charity. She returned the health care charge several times, saying she did not accept government care for many years, but that ultimately, she accepted the benefits package that was set for her by Saratoga County’s supervisors — which included McDonald, the Wilton supervisor until 1997. She also attacked McDonald’s employment by M&T Bank as a commercial banker.

Mostly, Marchione remained even as McDonald grew frustrated. She pointed out the reams of negative mail advertisements that have come from McDonald’s campaign and its surrogates, including the state’s Independence Party. The crowd assisted Marchione in this, occasionally jeering the senator as he became noticeably flustered.

“The men and women of our state deserve more than local hack politics,” he said.

Marchione retorted that the was being “desperate” and said “not going negative is just another broken promise from an Albany politician.”

“It’s not negative if it’s true,” McDonald replied, to boos.

McDonald is not known to be concise in public remarks, and what he described as his “Irish temper” began to show. There is almost no time between the debate and the primary, but some of his statements could easily be cut into devastating attack advertisements. Like this response to criticism of his job at M&T: “I’m not a lobbyist, I’m a working man. I’ve been a banker since 1973.”

“I am an American success story, and I will be an American before I am any political affiliate. Forever,” McDonald said. “They drove me to the breaking point. Enough already. I took as much as I could take, and I’m not going to take anymore.”

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